The City of Rhinelander will be adding a four-way stop to one of its downtown intersections.
Earlier this year, the city held a listening session about possibly turning Brown Street into a one-way.
While people rejected that plan, a different idea was to add four-way stop signs to two intersections on Brown.
City Council voted this week to change the intersection of Brown and Rives into a four-way stop.
“Near that part of Brown Street is busier. On top of that, the way the parking is established, it is really hard to see coming out of that intersection if you're on Rives trying to cross Brown or turning into traffic,” said Alderperson Steven Jopek. “There's just been a number of times, if it's not nighttime and I can't see the reflection of headlights reflecting off windows, I don't know if a car is coming or not.”
Only that intersection is changing for now.
The one at Brown and Frederick may be considered in the future.
Rhinelander Mayor Kris Hanus said getting the stop signs in now will help get residents familiar with the changes before the big tourist influx next summer.
“If we do decide to move forward on that other intersection that could be done in the spring, after a winter of kind of seeing how it plays out,” said Hanus. “The only suggestion I would make is if we do do stop signs that we also do painting on the blacktop, and then probably do some temporary notification just to make it known.”
There’s not a set date for when the signs will be installed.
City Administrator Patrick Reagan told WXPR they’re working to get it done “as soon as possible.”
